Hartford Council Approves 25-Year Stadium Lease

The city has released new renderings of the $350 million Downtown North. The development is expected to bring housing, retail, a brewery and a 9,000-spectator minor league ballpark to long-vacant land. Each rendering is followed by a photo of what exists there today. -- Kenneth R. Gosselin

The Hartford city council approved a 25-year lease with the stadium authority Saturday

HARTFORD — The city council on Saturday voted 6-1 for the city to enter into a 25-year lease with a municipal authority that will own and operate the new minor league ballpark.

The proposal also authorizes the transfer of land near Main and Trumbull streets to the Hartford Stadium Authority, a quasi public group. Council member David MacDonald dissented and members Raúl De Jesús, Jr. and Larry Deutsch were absent.

"The voters deserve to have a chance to vote on this," said MacDonald, who unsuccessfully moved "that we put it to a referendum to the voters of the city of Hartford."

The exact terms of the lease were not available Saturday, but the proposal states that annual payments would not exceed $4.26 million. The stadium authority, formed late last month, will own and finance a ballpark built north of downtown.

MacDonald cited Chapter 11, Section 2-c of the city charter in his call for a referendum, which no other council member supported. The charter states that if the total estimated costs of any improvement for which bonds or notes are proposed to be issued exceeds $2 million — and if the "full faith and credit of the city shall be pledged to the payment of any portion of the principal of and interest on the bonds or notes" — the city must receive the public's approval.

However, city Treasurer Adam Cloud said the councilman was misinterpreting the law.

"They are reading the charter section of the city of Hartford that suggests correctly….that for any expenditure over $2 million, the city has to go through public," he said. "But that's when the city is the borrower. In this case, it's the stadium authority."

Cloud cited state statute Sec. 7-130 as an exemption for the referendum, which allows for creation of the stadium authority and allows it to borrow money.

"I believe this project…is a good thing for the city. It will help create vibrancy and remove blight in an underserved portion of our city," Cloud said. "Therefore, it's important that we make the commitment to finance the stadium, allowing it to be a catalyst for the additional private capital investment."

HARTFORD — The city's agreements with the developers of a $350 million project that includes a minor league baseball stadium and the owners of the New Britain Rock Cats allow the city occasional free use of the stadium, stipulate that "Hartford" be in the team's name and require that tickets be...

(JENNA CARLESSO and STEVEN GOODE)

Resident Alyssa Peterson said she, along with other residents, plan to start a petition drive for a referendum. She said she is "confident that we will gather the signatures needed to force a … vote."

City officials have said the authority would borrow the money needed to build the stadium, and the cost to borrow would be lower for the authority than for developer DoNo Hartford LLC -- a move that could save at least $11 million.

Officials said the authority would get the lower rate because it would finance the project entirely with debt. The developers had planned to fund it with debt and private equity.

Additionally, they said, the authority would be able to access the capital market at lower interest rates because it is similar to a government entity.

Previously, DoNo Hartford LLC would have borrowed the money and owned the stadium, and the city would have paid to lease the stadium from the group -- eventually buying it at the end of the lease.

But under the new plan, the authority owns the stadium, borrows the money to pay for it and pays Centerplan Construction (part of DoNo Hartford) to build it. The city's payments will go to the authority and total less than it would have paid DoNo Hartford.

Hartford was to pay the developer about $4 million annually, with three 5 percent increases during the life of the lease. Those increases are eliminated under the new plan, officials said.

Council President Shawn Wooden said ownership of the stadium will now revert to the city after the conclusion of its lease with the stadium authority.